Heroism 101
by Desktop Warrior
Summary: He risked himself for his friends because that was what friendship meant to him: that you made a positive impact in other people's lives, sometimes putting your own on the line when you knew they'd do the same for you. Starring Izumo as the valiant hero, Shiemi as her trusty Sancho, and Godaiin as her fair Prince. Rated T.


**A/N:** Phew, this was a quick yet gruelling - yet fun! - piece of work to write. The A/N's going to be a bit longer than usual, since this story covers not one, not two, but THREE separate challenges.

First and foremost, this is my entry for the **Adopt a Challenge** challenge, part of the RLt's Green Room event. Details for this challenge may be found at The Reviews Lounge, Too forum, under the thread Fall Event: The RLt Green Room. This challenge consists of writing for one or more events in the RLt's Challenge Thread, preferably older ones that have been sitting in the thread ignored for a while. So, to list the challenges I'm submitting this story for...

1. **Cerulean City**'s challenge, centred around this phrase:_"Regrettably, we've lost your records. You are officially a persona non gratae. Have a nice day."_ The responding fic meets the over-500-word requirement.

2. **Domineus Tenebrosus**' challenge, writing a fic with no dialogue at all. The story meets the Gold requirement of being over 2000 words.

3. **Rosawyn**'s "Save the Prince!" challenge, wherein a male character is rescued by a female character.

* * *

**Heroism 101**

When she woke up, she looked around frantically. Beige walls around her, a soft mattress, a simple wooden desk and shelves to her side.

Right. She was back in her dorm room.

Gingerly, she got out of bed, her aching muscles protesting. Too bad. They were going to move, whether they liked it or not. She made her way to the showers, passing a couple girls along the way she didn't talk to very much.

The hot water was a heavenly balsam on her skin, relaxing the stiffness in her body. Inhaling, exhaling, she stretched. Closed her eyes. Reflected.

It was bureaucracy which had propagated this entire hullabaloo. Someone had 'misplaced' Godaiin's character profile, and he'd been stripped of his rank in the Order. The scheming Arc Knight's stench was all over this. Nothing could be proven, of course, and Godaiin had been inconsolable when he'd prepared for his mission, only to receive an expulsion instead.

The idiot had to go ahead with it, anyway. The Order, the Order, protecting humanity. That chorus still grated in her ears. Damn whiner. He'd never get over the ridiculous notion that he had some sort of 'debt' to repay them, even when he'd helped save their asses a hundred times. He was going to drive some poor woman (or man, since his tastes didn't seem to be particular) insane…only to redeem himself through some other reckless, heroic deed five minutes later.

Without the Order's backup, though, he only ended up a sitting duck, practically delivering himself into the enemy's hands. Okumura had flown into a panic when Godaiin didn't report back at the appointed time (of course _he_ had to get involved; the hero syndrome was an epidemic among these people) and declared an off-the-radar rescue. Kirigakure-sensei had overheard, though, and dragged the hot-headed boy away. Someone less conspicuous would have to infiltrate the enemy's hideout and rescue the distressed damsel. It had to be a two-person job.

Guess who she got stuck with.

Moriyama Shiemi was infuriating enough on a good day. When it was up to the two of them to sneak past a whole base of enemies, she'd thought for sure that she'd end the day as a murderer. To her credit, though, Moriyama was strong and capable. Not once did she falter, not even as they hung fifty feet in the air with the whole enemy contingent about to do them in.

She let out an airy sigh, scrubbing fragrant body wash onto her arms, her chest, her legs. Those were particularly sore after all the cut-and-running she'd done. A lot of the time, it wasn't even the enemy that was the problem, but her own familiars, who insisted on controlling the flow of battle. The nerve of those foxes! She was a _miko_, with generations of demon-taming behind her. They owed her at least nominal respect, the beasts. She shook her head. They deserved her respect, too, after all the battles they'd fought for her. Uke and Mike had held back a skin-walker, a Myouou demon, a Demon Eater, and much more in their tenure as her familiars.

That night, they'd sabotaged the enemy's operations by disrupting communications to the agents inside the fortress where Godaiin was being held. They'd approached from the top of a low rise approaching a bleak stone tower. Kirigakure-sensei's intel said that Godaiin was at the top of that tower. Well. As villains, they couldn't have gotten any more cliché, could they? She rolled her eyes at the thought. It had only made it easier for them to smuggle Godaiin out, at the end of it all.

They started by getting in touch with the boys. Okumura, the gorilla, and 'Neko had been poking around the Arc Knight's files. Disturbing stuff. Apparently, his whole rise to power was one big story of being in the right place at the right time. When there hadn't been a right time, he'd made one. And Godaiin had already surmised all that from his snooping, uh, research. All things considered, no one could deny that the boy had his wits about him. It was why he had to be eliminated as a threat. As outright assassination wasn't an option, infamy was the next best thing.

More importantly, Godaiin had led them to the hideout's schematics right before he'd been told to have a nice bloody day. Kirigakure-sensei's familiars had already relieved a couple of unlucky info brokers of _that_ burden.

Things started going downhill at that point. Uke had let one of the agents outside slip by and raise the alarm. From their hiding spot, infiltration was far more difficult. Their cover was effectively blown until Moriyama had the unorthodox idea of sneaking them in underground. Some plants had hollow roots, she explained, and Ni-chan, her little Green Man familiar, could replicate them. It was a tight squeeze, but they made it through, covered in dirt and questionable plant matter. She swore she'd never do anything like that again, even as Moriyama grinned like a child on New Year's Day from getting up close and personal with her plants.

The inside of the little fortress had been oddly quiet. She guessed it was because of their little blunder earlier, which had sent most of the enemy outside to look for them. No use sitting around. They needed to make their way to Godaiin. She recalled Uke and Mike. Instead, she employed her fox kits, adorably small but highly capable multi-taskers, to help them sneak through the fortress.

It didn't take them long to reach the tower. A new addition to the place, it had been built to look over the rise they'd climbed earlier. Getting to the top looked to be easy.

'Looked' being the operative term. Hiding in an alcove as a lone guard passed by, they contacted the boys again. The tower was rigged with traps. If they wanted to climb it, they'd need to dodge the traps and move silently. Or they could sprout squirrel ears and a tail and glide from place to place. That Okumura and his video game references. Honestly, hadn't he grown out of childhood yet? He wasn't always annoying, and sometimes, his simplicity could be endearing, and…

She shook her head, feeling her face heating up. It wasn't because of the hot shower, either. What was she thinking!? Recovering her composure, she willed herself to focus on what had happened next. On one floor, they'd had to crawl along the side of a wall – thank goodness for Ni-chan and his jungle vines, though she could've done without Moriyama's subdued 'jungle girl' impressions.

Next, ethereal stairs that vanished as soon as they stepped on them. There was always that stage, wasn't there? Maybe Okumura's games had a point or two. She tried a couple chants, the only ones she knew, to no avail. Not like the stairs would solidify for a minor chant that anyone with a voice box could produce. In the end, they had to contact the boys again and repeat a chant the gorilla relayed to them verse for verse.

Coal Tar on the next floor. Cyclopes after that. Illusions, plain vanilla poison darts…and on the seventh floor, two human guards in front of a door.

Attacking them triggered the real challenge.

The Golem began lumbering at them with deceptive speed. Of all the things they could've faced, this had to be one of the worst. Golems were annoyingly hard to beat, invulnerable to physical attacks. Arias simply bounced off them. Nor did they have a fatal verse. The only one who could render them immobile was the one whose soul they were bound to, and then, only by uttering a certain unique phrase. Good luck finding whoever that was. If they were smart, the Golem's owner wouldn't even be here; they'd be somewhere far away, watching with a satisfied smirk through a camera or something as the Golem pounded their enemies.

Golems could be restrained, though, and that was exactly what Moriyama's familiar did. But even the giant roots of Una-Una-chan couldn't hold the hulking behemoth for long. At this rate, they'd end up in the same predicament as Godaiin, and the Order's enemies would have two more bargaining chips to bring to the table. Against her better judgement, then, she called out her trump card.

Black flames and a primal roar of destructive glee brought fear to the enemy, and not a little to her and Moriyama themselves. She'd 'liberated' this incredible force from a traitor to the Order, her own Tamer's body far more suited to the heavy toll it took than his had been.

Not that it didn't tire her. Little by little, she felt her strength being sapped away, her breathing heavy. Nonetheless, she regarded the metal door the guards had been stationed in front of. It was tauntingly shut. Godaiin would be right behind it. He was probably hearing the sounds of havoc on the other side, confident that his rescue was imminent. Or pacing restlessly as he prayed for a quick release.

She couldn't let a damn door stop her after they'd gotten so far. Not now. There had to be some way inside…or around.

There was a narrow window a metre away from her.

She'd never been as terrified as she'd been in those moments climbing on the tower's exterior, Ni-chan's vines the only thing between her and a long drop to the bottom. Again, Moriyama had been her strength, urging them on. It seemed like an eternity before they made it to Godaiin's cell. The boy had understandably freaked out at the prospect of climbing outside the window. But, mustering all the courage he could, he squeezed through the narrow opening and joined them on the vines.

Now, all they needed to do was get away and back to the safety of the Order.

She shuddered as the scalding water washed the soap off her skin. It just wasn't a proper hot shower if your skin wasn't raw and red. The heat calmed her. She didn't like to think of herself as timid, but in that moment, she reflected, she'd felt more vulnerable than at almost any other point in her life. Her chaotic trump card was still hard at work (or play, as he likely saw it), preventing the Golem and its human accomplices from cutting the vines, their only lifeline. Moriyama herself focused intently. If her concentration slipped, her familiar might start to ignore her, and they would all have a very intimate encounter with the rocky crags below.

It was all up to her.

Kamiki Izumo.

Godaiin had rescued her from the clutches of the Illuminati once. She couldn't fail him now. Now, she could begin to understand him. He didn't need to be a hero for the sake of it. He risked himself for his friends because that was what friendship meant to him: that you made a positive impact in other people's lives, sometimes putting your own on the line when you knew they'd do the same for you.

She was going to get them to safety, the odds irrespective of that fact.

At her insistence, they jumped.

The fall wasn't too bad. She'd suggested that Moriyama have Ni-chan recall his vines and then immediately cushion them with roots rising from the ground below. The roots caught them, and they landed hard. But nothing broke or sprained, and they climbed the giant temporary structure to the top of the rise.

And then, they ran, a wall of black flames shielding their escape as she ordered her familiar to join them (with much grumbling on his part). None of the enemy were foolish enough to pursue them through that, not if they wanted to keep their souls. Everyone was exhausted, but they trudged on anyway. It was that, or give themselves up to the enemy. Through forest and across stream and river, they kept moving, every panting breath taking them one more step forward. There was no time to pause. If one of them stumbled, they got right back up. On and on, until they reached the Order's outpost, and safety.

She dried herself off and returned to her room, the rumpled sheets of her bed welcoming her back. Paku was in class now, though she knew the quiet girl wouldn't have disturbed her.

All in all, she reasoned as she ran a blow dryer on her hair, she should be happy. The mission had been a resounding success. With Godaiin's rescue, the enemy had lost one of the Order's most useful assets, an unassuming young man whose talents were underappreciated even by himself. A commission was being drawn up right away to reinstate him to his position and bring the saboteurs of his career to justice.

He'd thanked her profusely, and apologized far more than was necessary, she recalled with a sneer of disgust. Immediately, she chastised herself. He was a genuinely good kid, Godaiin, someone who should never have been brought into the cruel world of the Order. But it had been his choice, and he'd borne his self-imposed duty without a word of protest.

For once, someone deserved better than her scorn. Maybe, she thought with a smile, it wasn't too inconvenient to be the hero this time.


End file.
